I. Problems facing colonial Africa • Colonial boundaries drawn by Europeans in Africa in the late 19 th century were arbitrary. • Colonialism in Africa had been extremely exploitative. • White settler communities developed in Africa, creating a white upper class and black or Arab lower class in many areas.

II. National Liberation in Algeria • Algeria, in northern Africa, had been colonized by the French in 1834. • The Algerian economy was heavily dominated by French colonists who gathered in the capital of Algiers. They owned vineyards, citrus estates, banks, and oil resources.

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• The Arab and Berber Muslim majority in Algeria were not citizens under French rule because they would not renounce Islam. • By the early 1950s, there was growing nationalist unrest and organized resistance movements. • One of these, the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale), founded in 1954, launched coordinated attacks on public buildings, military and police posts, and communication installations. • A steady rise in guerrilla action by the FLN over the next two years led to France sending in 400,000 troops. Terrorist acts (kidnappings, bombings) became part of the FLN strategy, which led French troops into counterterrorist acts against the civilian population in the countryside.

to the cities. • Cafes, schools, and

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